The National tribune., 1887-07-07

otneTi- IoI tiies 0tt CohN .itiDic' All 1he MINUS
OF our people Confederate means REBEL"
and rebel" means Confederate"
Nobody found fault with Gen. Grant for
saying Confederate nor have they with
Mr.. Cleveland for any previous use of the
term.
The complaint now is not that he has
gone too far in his desire TO please the men
who resisted the Government, but that he
has committed a grave legal blunder that
may have unknown consequences. by n
single sentence he repudiatcd Mr.. LincOln's
theory Of the war and accepted Jeff Davis's'
There would have been little if any COM
plant if he had followed Gen. Grants ex-
ample, and spoken of Confederate Gen
erals" Confederate armies" Confederate
soldiers" Confederate flags" etc. But
when he speaks of the Confederate States >
as something that once had a legal existence,
and Of which the present Governments of GER
tain Southern States are the regular success
sors, he startles everyone who went through
the great struggle on either side.
As we have said before, this is a matter
which concerns the people of the South even
more than il does those Of the rest Of the
country. The Governments inilexible de-
NAL that the States could or did make war
upon il, absolved the Southern people from
the payment of all debts incurred in the
prosecution of the rebellion. They were
thus relieved from load which would have
crushed them.
JEFF Davis, Alex. II. Stephens, r. T. Lee,
and all those who sided with them said it
was "a war between the Statesn-those
which withdrew from the Union" and re-
united in another league, forming "The
Confederate States" and resisting the in
yasion Of those which remained and assumed
TO be the United States"
On the other hand, Abraham Lincoln, Ed
win Stanton, Gen. Grant, and all those who
sided with them, waged the war on the
principle that "no State can secede or resist
the authority of the Government" and that
the acts in fuItherance of secession were the
acts Of unlawful combinations Of men in
certain localities, and these combinations
must be crushed by the strong hand Of the
Nation. From the day that Lincoln first
set in motion the columns Of troops which
crossed the Ohio and the Potomac until Mr.
Cleveland wrote his letter to Secretary o.
War Endicott there never was an admission
by any United States official that any mar
or SET of men belonging TO the so-callet
State Governments set up in opposition Il
the Union had the slightest shadow Of au
thority TO act as such. We ignored all thu
civil authorities-except Mayors and othe
municipal officers-as wholly illegal ant
pOwerless and dealt only with the actua
commanders Of armed forces.
If there were Confederate States" as
JEFF Davis, Alex II. Stephens, ct al, insisted
and, in the sense of Mr.. Cleveland's letter
the States that formed the Confederacy
are individually liable for every dollar thai
was borrowed TO carry on the struggle
against the Government If, on the othe
hand, the rebellion was legally no more tn,
act Of the States than the draft instruction
was the act of the city of New York, o
the Haymarket riot the act of the munici
pality of Chicago, then the people of the re
belliOus sections have no liability for tn
debts incurred by the rebellion.